Ancient Indian Political Thought and Institutions: Saletore’s Magnum Opus on Sanatana Politics and Statecraft

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INTRODUCING THE SCOPE of Ancient Indian Political Thought and Institutions, Saletore writes:

“The history of ancient Indian political thought is the story of great minds that evolved great political institutions and guided Hindu society for nearly three millenniums. Its significance lies also in the fact that it deals with a vast country which has had a civilization that goes back to at least 5,000 years and which witnessed the rise and fall of many kingdoms and empires in the course of its long and eventful history…

Our study is marked by a continuity which is its next significant feature. Superficially it might seem that later political thinkers merely reproduced the theories of earlier writers…But our ancients were too generous and tolerant to disarm legitimate criticism. It is this which explains why, in the purely speculative fields of religious thought, they had room for such agnostic teachers like Brihaspati, whose school came to be called Carvaka or Lokayata. It would, therefore, be incorrect to maintain that the ancient theorists merely echoed one another; on the other hand, they carefully maintained what their predecessors had said in regard to political thought, recorded wherever necessary divergent opinions, and thereby added to the totality and continuity of the subject.

This conservatism of all our ancient lawgivers, Dharmasastra writers from Manu onwards, was by itself one of the factors which enabled the subject of politics and statecraft to possess a continuity of its own. Herein lies a special feature of our study.  The continuity of ancient Indian political thought and institutions makes it an intelligible field of enquiry. This is particularly noticeable when we take into account the genesis of ancient political thought, the institutions which it brought into existence, and the factors which helped their growth when they received their final crystallization in the later age of Kautilya, after which they remained practically unchanged for centuries. From this point of view, our subject is not only continuous but complete in itself, carrying with it the characteristics of an ancient beginning, an enduring growth through centuries, and a long fulfilment and flowering which invest it with an abiding interest and fascination that are unique in the wide field of historical studies.

To the modernists, the study has a special appeal in the sense that, some of the fundamental problems which were tackled by the ancient Indian theorists and statesmen have a striking resemblance to those which confront the modem State." [Emphasis added]

Perhaps the only senior contemporary scholar of Saletore who elucidated the last point so profoundly and so extensively both in theory and practice was none other than DVG. That both of them hailed from Karnataka is an additional factor of pride for the Kannada people.

Ancient Indian Political Thought and Institutions is a truly majestic work. The treatment is encyclopedic judged by its content, organization, insights, and exhaustive attention to detail. By all standards, it deserves an independent, serious study in its own right…like a lecture series or closed-group study. For now, we can be satisfied with taking a brief look at its contents divided into six sections. The following is a list of only the most important topics which enables us to form a broad idea:

·       Relationship between Dharmasastras and Dandaniti.

·       When did Dandaniti secure an individuality of its own?

·       The main schools of Indian political thought

·       The antiquity of some important of the concepts in Indian political thought

·       The social contract theory contrasted with the Sanatana conception

·       The Indian and the Babylonian concept of the state

·       Manu and the Modern World

·       Kautilya and Aristotle

·       Indian Political Institutions: Vedic, Jaina and Bauddha

·       The nature of the Indian State

·       Anarchy and Interregnum in Indian political history

·       Law and Order

·       The Theory of the Prakruts

·       The Arthasastra and Nitisastras

Finally, in a magnificent discussion, Saletore expounds on the Elements of the Indian State over more than a hundred pages. He also dedicates substantial portions in the work for discussing Kautilya from various perspectives: Manu and Kautilya, Kautilya and Aristotle, Kautilya and Ashoka, Kautilya’s institution of spies, post-Kautilyan schools, etc. He also discusses whether Kautilya was an atheist in the way we understand the term today.  

In the end, it is clear that Saletore holds Kautilya very dear to his heart because, in his own words:

This conclusion is consistent with both recorded history and the lived traditions of ancient India which have come down to us till date. Apart from our Vedic Rishis, the history of ancient India is distinguished by immortal luminaries of various fields who have stood the test of time. For example, Panini in the realm of Sanskrit language, Valmiki Maharshi and Veda Vyasa in literature, Bharatamuni in the realm of art and aesthetics, and Kautilya in statecraft and polity. All of these luminaries remain epoch-makers—Yugapurushas—who gave Bharatavarsha her foundations. You omit one name from this list, and the history of India not only becomes incomplete but distorted.  

Saletore’s Ancient Indian Political Thought and Institutions is in all respects and by all standards an invaluable work that must be rescued from its current oblivion and popularized at all levels, for all audiences.

To be continued